


Death Of Life

by nate_fml



Category: GOT7
Genre: Alternate Universe, Death, Fluff and Angst, M/M, life - Freeform, markson, mostly angst, yin and yang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-16
Updated: 2018-02-16
Packaged: 2019-03-19 11:33:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 5,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13703616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nate_fml/pseuds/nate_fml
Summary: >Souls are ephemeral. Their time is limited, from the point of having been given life to the very moment death comes to collect them.>Life is sempiternal. Bound to the earth, existing as long as there will be new souls, new living beings filling the world.>Death is eternal. It has always existed, and it will never stop existing. Even when the world goes up in flames and falls apart, when no more souls wander on earth, when life itself can't create new ones, when life itself dies and all is lost. Death will be the only thing living.





	1. 陰陽

yin and yang describe how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. 

Every natural force has a counter-force, otherwise it wouldn't be able to exist. There is no light without darkness, no shadow without light. There is no happiness without unhappiness, no sadness without gladness. There is no death without life, just how there can be no life without death.


	2. Ephemeral

All life is ephemeral.

And Jackson hated death.

To him, it was destruction. It destroyed what he created. The wonder of life, the beauty of every individual that was walking on earth, everything that breathes, that thinks, dreams and loves, everything in possession of a soul. One of those things he created so carefully and so thoughtfully, taking stray ideas bubbling in his head, over time forming a structure that then would be assigned to an expecting family. The mere framework then, over the process of a lifetime, forming into this beautiful construction of knowledge and wisdom, full with experiences, but death has to come and it sweeps in, interrupting the growing process of the souls, ripping them from this world, destroying the art, only leaving the impact they had on other souls, but even this aspect wouldn't last long, as most people got forgotten over time due to death not leaving out a single soul in a generation. Death was destroying his artwork.

Truth is, he had never met a death, humans liked to call them grim reapers, or just reapers, but he also never wanted to come across one. He couldn't imagine that anyone who was doing what they did, that anyone who killed, could somehow be of enjoyable company. It happened one time that as he was walking the street in his disguise that he had seen a car crash, and for a split second, he was sure, he had seen a person taking the shining blue thing, a soul, one of his creations, out of a person, but he hadn't been able to see the entire thing, after just a sort moment, as fast as lightning crashing from the heavens, the person was gone and the victim was dead.

This had been his first encounter with death, and he hoped it would be his last. He remembered the indignation, the anger and sadness he had felt. He had just seen one of his creations leave, one of the many souls vanished. It was one in a billion, but it was individual, not one had been the same, and now it was gone, lost forever. It was a young soul, only 23 years of experience, it would never get the chance to develop fully. And this thought pained him. It pained him to know that everything he created, all the beauty, would be lost one day, that all the hard work would be in vain, it would all disappear.

Jackson was life. One of the creators, the exact opposite of reapers, still they had more in common than he'd like to admit. While he created, they destroyed. While he gave life, they took it again. But still, basically they were one in the same, keeping the universe balanced.

Creators and reaper were strange creatures. Creatures was probably the wrong word to use, since people tend to connect negative or ugly things with the word. A goblin would be a creature for example. They were small, annoying, evil and ugly. Spirits would probably fit creators and reaper better, they weren't just some creatures, they weren't exactly human either, though they looked like it. These spirits mostly walked among the humans, nobody would be able to differentiate their species, but sometimes, when they had a job to do , they would go back to their spirit form. It wasn't that much different from their human disguise. They actually looked the same, with the small exception that they were invisible to everyone except others of their kind in their spirit form. 

Luckily, there was no need for him to worry about having to talk to a reaper himself, seeing as spirits are immortal. No one knew were they came from, they just existed, and they started existing at the exact same time, never dying, never multiplying, and there was no way to kill them, or stop them from what they do.

Because of this, most spirits didn't even bother to live with the humans, connect with them, let alone befriend them. It was too much of a risk. They would outlive all of them anyway. 

Jackson though, he was different. In fact, he had six very close friends, for which he wouldn't hesitate to try and fight death, one of them he treasured the most.

Mark had always been the most special to him. The one he held dearest. From the moment they first met, Mark took his breath away. From the moment they first talked, Mark clouded his mind. Blinded by his ethereal beauty, intrigued by his mysterious behavior, though to him Mark was probably more like a friendly and cute fluffball, once you saw through his cold shell. It took Jackson way longer than for anyone else he had ever met to let Mark warm up to him, stop him from pushing him away. So long in fact, that he had almost gotten desperate, and unguarded, causing him to not even notice that somewhere along the way he had done something he swore never to do. He was careless just once, and he felt his world slowly falling apart as he noticed, he let himself get too attached, he fell in love. And it was too late to turn back.

He couldn't remember creating Mark, and if he was honest, he didn't trust himself to create a human, a soul this perfect. He didn't have the skill, but if he ever met the creator who was responsible, he was sure he'd not only ask for tips, but also hug them, for a very long time. It was this very moment in which he noticed, he started creating souls that kept being more and more similar to him. More and more of his souls seemed to be inspired by the simple existence of Mark. Whether it was visually or personality, something connecting the new soul to Mark could always be found. It scared Jackson once he noticed, yet his mind seemed to prevent him from doing anything else, as Mark never left his thoughts. 

And Jackson knew he was fucked.


	3. 平衡

It is mandatory that there is always an equilibrium in between two opposite forces, as otherwise the world would lose it's balance and there would be no way to avoid absolute chaos, destroying societies, landscapes, nature. Nothing would be able to exist anymore.

yin-death, cleaning the earth from old souls, taking souls whose time was over with them, into their garden, into an endless world without borders, preserving the souls forever, preventing the limited space on earth to run out, making room for new souls.

yang-life, on the contrary filled the empty spots with new lives, new souls, new people, plants and animals, creating what made the earth the special place that it was.

A perfect cycle, yet a day would come when it would stop, when the forces let the world fall into chaos, breaking it apart to the core. The day of the apocalypse. Day Zero.


	4. Sempiternal

They were sempiternal.

Spirits were as eternal as this planet they gift life to, existing until the day of the apocalypse, until the day earth would break apart, hellfire breaking loose in a raging inferno, rain and thunderstorms drowning out cities, meteors clashing down from above, seas and rivers bursting their banks, until day x, until the last human, the last animal, the last plant had been wiped out, until there was nothing left except them, they would exist, maybe even beyond that. No one knows, that day was still far. At least they hoped so.

Unlike humans, they were doomed to live forever. Jackson never saw that as a curse, how others did. He saw it as a gift. Other spirits tended to stay away from social contact with ephemeral beings, such as humans, ending up leading a lonely life, since it was pretty hard to stay with other spirits since most of them were constantly moving all around the planet. He though, he never hesitated to befriend humans, especially those with one of his souls. he loved watching them grow up, gaining experiences, though he left them before he could witness their passing. He lived his live happily. That was until he fell in love.

He had carefully built walls in his heart. Not those typical walls that allowed no one in, but he had built a maze, complicated enough to let people in, but never to close, they usually got lost pretty close to what he considered the outer circles. Mark had been different though. He was smarter. He had found the path all the way to the core of the maze, and now he got lost on his way out, stuck in the very core of Jackson's heart. And it broke him down.

The thought he had to either live without Mark, or see him die, to outlive him. See him age, knowing that one day, he would start to question Jackson's eternal youth, or that one day a reaper would have to sweep in, taking Mark with them, depriving the earth of a soul so beautiful, so perfect. Or even worse, he wouldn't get to see him age, he would be ripped from this world at a young age, still developing, still growing. He wasn't sure if he would be able to keep on living happily, if he just left, leaving behind all his current friends, leaving behind Mark, knowing that someone like Mark exists, but because this seemed like the less cruel, less self-destructive option at that time, and he knew if he stayed any longer he wouldn't be able to, he left on one of the following nights. After he spent the way with all of his friends. He wanted to remember them, smiling, laughing, having a joyful time. 

As it turned out, living without them was harder than he expected. He had moved far away, cut all contact, got a new phone number and deleted everything related to them he could find on any of his devices, this he had found incredibly hard as he had been staring at a group photo of them, hugging, laughing. And all this pained him, all this just because he hadn't been careful enough and fell in love. He had wanted to avoid additional pain. He had hoped he could forget them, move on, get over him, but his heart just never seemed to stop aching. He found himself thinking off them in casual moments, missing them even more. He would see a cute dog and immediately think of Youngjae's dog Coco, how the two dogs could play with each other, how Youngjae's aura had always brightened the room. How not even Mark's smile could outshine the younger. He would casually take a sip of good coffee in a random café down the street and couldn't help but think of how Jinyoung would have loved it, the one that always seemed so strict and traditional, but in reality was just as dorky as the rest of them, Jackson couldn't help but imagine how it would have been to take Mark to the café. He also couldn't help but notice how his thoughts kept spiraling back to them. To him. 

It had gotten to a point where he simply couldn't take it anymore, so he decided that after so many years he would go back, see if he could check in on them without them noticing. He was scared of what he would find, after all the youngest probably were around the age of seventy by that time. He stood in the park they always used to hang around, invisible to the world, just like all those precious memories and experiences they made, invisible tears rolled down his invisible cheek, his invisible chest heaving with heavy breaths, he had to control himself to not start sobbing right there and then. He never regretted the choices he had made, except this one. Leaving them behind was what he would call his biggest mistake. Jackson had missed them so much, and now, regret was filling every inch of his invisible body, that he wished to never turn visible again, knowing that they had been the best friends he could ever have found. And he wouldn't find all of them alive. If he even found them. Again, he hated death. Not only did they rob the earth from all the beautiful souls, now they also stole his friends.

If fate existed, it must hate him. The first second, Jackson wasn't sure if he had seen right through his tear blurred vision. A face appeared, not too far from him, concentrated on the way he was walking through the small crowd, busy enough to not notice Jackson, which he was grateful for. It gave him the opportunity to get closer to him, to see what he was up to, to find out how this was possible. There was no way he was a creator too, Jackson would have known that. There was no logical way to explain how he was... no, it couldn't be...

Yet Mark still looked exactly the same.


	5. 死亡藝術

On this single day, Jackson had felt so many emotions. His heart was crumbling apart, getting pieced back together, only to fall apart again. It was a vicious cycle of feelings which this day wouldn't seem to let end.

The torture of having to live without the people most precious to him.

Finding shelter in the places they used to meet at.

Knowing he might never see them again.

Finding the "love of his live" how humans said, alive.

Finding out why he is still the same.

Truthfully, Jackson didn't know what to feel anymore. He was content, he was disappointed, he was happy, but he was also broken.

Jackson hated death. Death was brought by reaper. Reaper, the same spirits like Mark. Mark, the one Jackson loved.

He followed Mark silently, stunned that he stayed almost exact the same as he remembered the seemingly 24 year-old, except that he was now wearing a black suit, his facial expression was darker, filled with sorrow, brows furrowed in contemplation. He fastened his steps, slipping through the entrance of the hospice around the corner, Jackson following not too far behind. He was in denial. He refused to believe that it was what it looked like, even though it was the only logical explanation, his repulsion, his hatred for anything related to death prevented him for accepting the truth.

Mark halted in his steps, fixed his suit and took a deep breath. From where he stood, all Jackson could see was that he stood in front of a closed door, the name tag reading a big number, and a few letters Jackson couldn't make out from his hiding spot. The door opened unexpectedly, two elders leaving the room smiling sadly, and even though they looked nothing like before, Jackson immediately recognized them, their souls, as the youngest two of his friends, now somewhere around the age of 75. Bambam and Yugyeom didn't see Mark, how could they, he was hidden, instead they walked right through him, stiffening their shoulders for a second as a cold shudder ran down their bodies. His eyes were fixed on them as they slowly walked past him to the entrance, he almost missed the other walking into the room.

Jackson stood in the door frame, staring at what he saw in front of him. Mark, his back to the door, stood in front of an older version of Youngjae, who, even though it was clear that he had almost no power left in his body, looked up to Mark smiling as bright as ever, shooting his sunshine smile, a single tear of happiness flowing down his cheek. His voice was weak as he started speaking, but Jackson heard their conversation very clearly, and he'd remember every bit of it.

"Mark... We missed you..."

"I'm sorry. I wish I hadn't left..."

"Two days after Jackson..."

He smiled. They didn't forget him. Mark looked down and stayed silent for a couple of minutes, in this time Jackson realized, Youngjae was talking to Mark so casually, not asking why or how he was still the same, young man as when he left. He calmly accepted that it was this way, as if it was normal, as if it was a given fact. The conversation resumed.

"It's been a long time..."

"I know why you're here. Don't worry, I'm prepared, I'm ready."

"You never lost your optimism." 

Mark chuckled.

"Others would have begged me to stay longer. Aren't you afraid?"

"I have nothing to be afraid of, not since you're here. It was bound to happen anyway."

"You can be proud of yourself, Youngjae. You lived a long and happy life."

"Will I see the others again?"

Mark nodded, to which Jackson was confused. Either the reaper was lying, or there was something that came after death. He didn't realize that he started crying listening to the two talk.

"They're already waiting for you."

"Then let's go."

He reached out his hand and Youngjae didn't hesitate to take it, and Jackson watched in awe as all his crinkles seemed to disappear as Mark held his hand, helping him stand up, turning younger and younger, until he looked like Jackson had saved him in his memory, back to his 21 year old self. He looked down at himself in shock.

"You seem almost eager to die." He smiled.

"How did you.. I'm young again."

"You never turned old. Your body did, but not your soul."

Jackson started crying at this point.

"Ready to leave?"

"One more question. Will Coco be there too?"

Mark nodded, enveloping a brightly grinning Youngjae into a tight hug, reaching behind him, pressing an alarm button, alerting the staff. All three of them were now invisible to others, as people rushed into the room, nurses as well as doctors, looking after old Youngjae, who was lying lifeless in bed. Mark looked up from where Youngjae had hid himself in the crook of his neck, his eyes boring directly into Jackson's, and he thought that for a second, he saw them glowing with a hint of emotion he wasn't quite sure about. Jackson stood almost paralyzed as the other blinked away a tear he didn't notice had been forming in his eyes, as he looked back at Youngjae.

"Let's go."

Only now Jackson found himself able to move, as the other two disappeared in a bright light. His cry for Mark's name unheard by the world. He let the tears fall.

Mark stood for everything Jackson hated. Strangely, he still loved him.


	6. Eternal

Death is eternal.

Jackson knew this much. What he didn't know was, that death is not the end, he thought death was a destroyer, but he was mistaken. Death is a caretaker.

Mark had come back. Without Youngjae. Mark had found Jackson again, in the same park Jackson had found Mark earlier. He had been sitting on a bench, processing all that he had found out, as he heard steps nearing him. He didn't care that much because he knew, no one could see him, so who would approach him. He knew who it was. An awkward silence stretched between them, tension so strong, Jackson felt as if he could cut it with a knife. 

"I feel like there's some stuff we should talk about..." Mark's voice was quiet and almost unsure as he started speaking. He didn't look at Jackson, eyes fixed on something in the distance.

"It's been like what, 50 years since we last..." 

"Why." Jackson interrupted him. Mark frowned and finally shifted his gaze to the other.

"What do you mean?"

"You know exactly what i mean." He hesitated to answer, avoiding the other's eyes.

"I had no choice..."

"Why do you say this? What would happen if you just would have let them live? How would it matter? What bad can come from living? Why do you do this?"

"You know exactly what would happen. I'm just doing my job too, you know?"

"But why couldn't you..." 

"Time on earth is limited Jackson, if it wouldn't have been me, someone else would have collected him. No souls can escape death, even if we let just one go, we're endangering the balance of the planet. You've heard of force and counter force, right?"

Jackson stayed silent. He knew Mark was right, it had to be like this. There was no other way to preserve life.

"You know... life doesn't just end. We can't just make the souls disappear. We collect them, bring them to another place. An eternal garden with no ends. It gives you enough space here to create new ones. Maybe this thought will cheer you up."

"Just that I have to live the rest of my never ending, immortal life without ever seeing any of them again."

Mark chuckled. "You're far from being immortal, Jackson. One day life, when life stops existing, the day of the apocalypse, your time will come too."

"But the apocalypse... that's only a theory, right? It won't actually happen."

There was a short pause, in which Mark looked at him with an adoring, but also sad smile, he ruffled his hair,letting his hand rest there for a second, before letting it drop to his side again. Jackson felt as if he was about to combust, hoping his face didn't turn as red as it felt like.

"If it happens, I'll gladly welcome you to my garden. I'm sure the others miss you too."

"Your garden?"

"Everyone of us reaper has their own garden, their own place for the souls they collect. Most of the ones you created are in mine. You could say I'm specialized in them."

"Why? For how long have you known about me?"

"A couple of centuries. I didn't know which one you were, but I knew it was always the same creator. I was only suspecting it to be you, but I wanted to get to know you. I admired your work." He paused.

At this point Jackson was most definitely blushing. He was stunned, never would he have imagined that his souls are that different from others, that anyone would ever get interested in his work, there were so many others of his kind, and he thought that most of them were better at what they were doing. 

"You could say i fell in love with your creations, how much effort and thought you put into every single one, how anyone could tell you love what you do, the obvious passion you have for it. The love you have for every single one of them. I feel like a stalker to be honest, but I feel like I've been following your traces ever since the first soul I collected."

"Ever since then I wanted to meet you. get to know the one behind all these beautiful creatures, one better than the other, and once I think you made a perfect one, you came and made one even better. When I finally met you, I was so happy. I finally felt as if my existence had a purpose other than my job. You made me feel like a human, enjoying every moment of life as if it could end any second."

"I was as happy as I never was before, and it was all because of you. I didn't know what it was back then, and now that I know what it is, I wish I would've never found out. I wish I would've never met you. Because I realized it too late, and then you left."  
There was a single tear rolling down Mark's cheek.

"And when you left, the feeling left with you. It went back to before I knew you, just that this time it bothered me. I missed it. I missed you. I missed the feeling of being with you, and I felt as if I couldn't live on without it. Of course. that's not true, but living seemed so much harder, now that you've left. And I just wished for you to come back and never leave again, I started looking for you, I felt like a crazy stalker to be honest, but you were always a step ahead of me. It were selfish thoughts, wanting to keep you near me, just so the empty feeling wouldn't come back. I knew I couldn't keep you with me, but there was one thing I wanted to do before I let you go."

Jackson hadn't noticed how close Mark had come to him until he felt two lips on his own, making both his heart and his mind explode with feelings he didn't know even existed. The moment, though beautiful, lasted shortly, way too short. He was too much in shock to respond in any way, even now he was still stunned, overwhelmed by the feeling and at a loss for words.

"Mark... I..." He started stuttering, but the other interrupted him.

"It's okay, I didn't expect you to react. Falling in love never was my plan, it just happened, but I know how you think of death and reaper and all that stuff... Maybe now I'm able to let you go, I have to... I won't bother you anymore from now on, but we'll eventually meet again, I'm positive."

He stood up, the white light from before starting to envelope him before disappearing as Jackson finally found the ability to move again. He wanted to grab a hold of Mark, his hand, his arm, anything that kept him from leaving, he cried out for him to stay, to wait.

But he was too late.


	7. 天零

It happened without a warning. Out of nothing. With no possible explanation. 

He lost his abilities. No matter how hard he tried, Jackson just couldn't seem to create life again, and he hated it. He was scared of it. Especially when he found out he wasn't the only one who had this problem. In fact he found out pretty quickly that everyone lost the power to make life. There was not a single creator capable of creating left on earth. All around them on the entire world. Reaper were still as active as before, the amount of living beings on the planet decreased way to fast in his opinion, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Humans didn't take long to notice this fact either, as birthrates dropped down to zero and death-rates started increasing rapidly. After a week it seemed like death sped up and was working faster and more efficient than ever. And as he watched live fade away, he felt himself fall apart. All that they had worked for for so long slowly disappearing. All his work. Gone. The planet started becoming lifeless and boring ,but there was no way to change it. It felt as if with each death he witnessed, a part of him died too. This continued for what felt like an eternity, even though it lasted merely a couple of weeks before the situation reached it's peak. 

It happened in the last town. The last town in which there were living beings left. Jackson wandered the streets, asking himself why he even was there, he knew how it would end, but he didn't expect it to happen all at once. He fell to the ground, tears streaming down his face. It was over, he felt it.

There was no one else on the planet other than reaper and creator. Why the reaper were still here seemed inexplicable to him at first. Maybe they wanted to make fun of them, for having to exist in this dreary, empty world forever, that was his first thought. It was a cruel thought. A train of thoughts actually, that was luckily interrupted by someone walking up to the cowering Jackson and pulled him back on his feet.

"Remember what I told you the last time we met? 'You're far from being immortal, Jackson. One day, when life stops existing, the day of the apocalypse, your time will come too.' Jackson... I promised we'll meet again, didn't I? Please stop crying, there's no need to."

A sad smile spread on his face. Of course he'd remember, how could he forget. Mark already told him this would happen, Mark already told him what would happen with them once the apocalypse is over. He understood. Now it was time for the creator to leave and abandon this planet. There was one thing however, he did not understand.

"Why did this happen? Hasn't it been perfect the way it was? What is all of this for? Why does death have to be so cruel..."

Mark frowned. "All life on this planet is limited, including the planet itself. Not much longer and it will fall apart, burst in fire and flames, get drowned out by the oceans, ripped apart until it's nothing more than dust... Don't you think it's less cruel to end life before this happens?"

"What comes after this? I know you told me something about a garden but... That's not really clear... I don't really... understand..."

"There seem to be a lot of things you don't understand." He chuckled. "Don't worry, it's not that different from life here."

There was a long pause of Jackson staying silent. It was not like he had any other choice than to go with Mark, there was no escape from death... also, he didn't really want to have Mark leave him... again. He smiled as the memory popped up, the memory of Mark's lips on his, the feeling of his kiss. 

"Remember what happened last time we talked?"

Mark averted his face, trying to hide the soft pink cheeks by staring holes in the ground next to him, timid but happy smile lighting up his face. "Please, let's not talk about this..."

"You ran away so quickly, I had no chance of reacting. There was one important thing I wanted to do."

"And that would be?" He looked up again, eyes sparking with interest. Jackson didn't hesitate this time, quickly closing the gap between them, trying his best to recreate the faint memory, to show the other he felt the same, and it seemed to work, judging by the hands that were gently placed on Jackson's cheeks, who, in return, hugged Mark's slim frame close as they remained like this for a few moments, engraving it in their minds, not ever wanting to forget it, before they separated, foreheads resting together. A giggle left their lips as they noticed that even this short sweet moment had left both of them breathless, bright smiles framed by rosy cheeks.

"Please don't leave like that ever again."

"I won't, don't worry."

"Okay... Now I'm ready to go." 

"Scared?"

"Not a bit. Not when you're here." Still, Jackson hid his face in Mark's shoulder as he felt his arms enclose him in a hug, the white light surrounding them, carrying them away from this planet, into the gardens of eternity. And like that, life, together with death, left earth, mere seconds before it fell apart to no more than dust in the wind.


End file.
